New York Fashion Week’s First Male Amputee Model

This is Jack Eyers, a 25-year-old personal trainer and model from Bournemouth, England who had his leg amputated at the age of 16.

Eyers suffered from a condition called proximal femoral focal deficiency. It is a non-congenital birth defect that causes a hip deformation, which leads to the attached leg to be shorter. Eyers’ right leg is the one that was affected and he had to wait until it was fully grown before he could officially amputate it. He says, “When I finally got it removed it felt like I’d been reborn.”

Though Eyers admits that growing up with a deformed leg was hard and gave other kids ammunition to bully him with, he aims to inspire those with disabilitie

“I just want to show that having a disability doesn’t need to hold you back,” he says. “I want people to see me, and to realize that there need to be more disabled models walking the runway.”

It was through this campaign that designer Antonio Urzi discovered Eyers and invited him to walk for FTL Moda’s AW15 collection.

Just this past week, Eyers made history as the very first male amputee to walk the runway at New York Fashion Week.

He also had the honor of sharing the runway with fellow models who have overcome their own disabilities.